The Global Dataset on Paternity Leave (GDPatL) constitutes the first comprehensive and systematically compiled global dataset on paternity leave. It provides harmonised cross-national information on paid and unpaid paternity leave entitlements across 174 independent nation-states. Among these, 129 countries have introduced paternity leave. The dataset spans the period 1880–2021, with the first recorded introduction of paternity leave in national legislation occurring in 1946. Developed within the Global Welfare State Information System (WeSIS), the GDPatL provides historically grounded and analytically precise data on the design of paternity leave schemes, including policy existence, duration, benefit generosity (such as wage-replacement rates and the application of benefit ceilings), eligibility criteria covering diverse worker groups (including the self-employed, adoptive parents and same-sex partners), and underlying financing arrangements. The dataset is expressly constructed to facilitate rigorous comparative and longitudinal analyses of how paternity protection has evolved in response to shifting gender norms, changing family structures and labour-market transformations. Each observation corresponds to a country-year and includes both standardized and original-format variables. A consistent coding system for missing or inapplicable values ensures analytical transparency. As a unique longitudinal resource, the GDPatL enables scholars to investigate the emergence, diffusion and institutionalisation of paternity leave worldwide, thereby enriching the empirical foundations of research on fatherhood, care regimes and the pursuit of gender-equal social protection.

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